After 18 months of cleanup around Suncor's oil refinery, contamination of the South Platte River is diminishing, but concentrations of cancer-causing benzene in the water remain six times higher than the national safety standard.Dealing with the Suncor spill north of Denver, detected in November 2011, still ranks among the toughest environmental challenges in the region. Another oil a...

domino wrote:Fined? How come no one has been arrested, indicted and tried? It has been a year and a half.

If this is how they will react to spills, how can anyone dream of allowing fracking?

Here's an idea. Turn the gas supply off to your home. Take you vehicles and send them to the recycler. Get rid of everything plastic in you home. Once you do that, then you can get away with your tripe.

Suncor is cleaning up a spill started under the site's previous ownership.

It looks like the problem is being handled as well as possible by both Suncor and COGCC. I'm thankful they are working well together to solve this leak, and to mitigate future leaks.

Problems exist in all endeavors. Medical, farming, teaching, religion, retailing, mineral extraction, tourism, etc. It seems to work best to have those most expert in that area having a problem fix the problem. People with no knowledge of the industry having problems can rant, but they can't really contribute much.

Thanks again to everyone that is doing their job well for helping fix this.

The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

Where are all the anti-regulations, anti-EPA folks? The cost of those bubblers and absorption floats must be busting Suncor's profit margins. Where are all the Tea Party members to stand up for this poor corporation's rights to operate freely in this free country?

Edit: wow, DP changed my prefered term to "Tea Party members" way to keep it clean

First of all, it's important to understand that this is the section of the South Platte RIver that you drive over on I-270 as you pass Commerce City to the west. This is not an area where we Front Rangers obtain our drinking water.

Second, the article kind of ties the remediation to the idea that the federal/state standard is 5 ppb of Benzene. That's not correct. That might be the federal guideline, but the state limit for this segment is 5,300 ppb.

Third, the author, or Suncor, or Williams, are not disclosing what the levels are in the ACTUAL impact area? Of course levels are going to dissipate as they move downstream, but what were the levels at the spill site?

Fourth, for the commenter below, this isn't a CCOGC thing. It's absolutely not. In fact the COGCC was kicked to the curb by CDPHE after the EPA got on their cases about is happening out there. In fact the story within the story is that COGCC has no ability to truly stop pollution from the O&G industry.

Fifth, benzene in groundwater and in surface flows sucks. It really does. But let's not pretend like this is happening in some pristine aquifer, Gold Medal trout water or even near the Cherry Creek confluence. It's not. This is an already disgusting section of water that no one in their right minds would swim or drink from.

Sixth, as gross as this all is, it shows the benefits of the Clean Water Act because the river is WAY less polluted today than it has been at pretty much any time since statehood.

I don't mean to startle you and your hard-fought linear argumentation, but humans are not the only beings on this rock that require water for life.

Another quick point about water -- it flows. Sections of river tend to do the same. When they don't, we call them lakes.

swampfox wrote:First of all, it's important to understand that this is the section of the South Platte RIver that you drive over on I-270 as you pass Commerce City to the west. This is not an area where we Front Rangers obtain our drinking water.

Second, the article kind of ties the remediation to the idea that the federal/state standard is 5 ppb of Benzene. That's not correct. That might be the federal guideline, but the state limit for this segment is 5,300 ppb.

Third, the author, or Suncor, or Williams, are not disclosing what the levels are in the ACTUAL impact area? Of course levels are going to dissipate as they move downstream, but what were the levels at the spill site?

Fourth, for the commenter below, this isn't a CCOGC thing. It's absolutely not. In fact the COGCC was kicked to the curb by CDPHE after the EPA got on their cases about is happening out there. In fact the story within the story is that COGCC has no ability to truly stop pollution from the O&G industry.

Fifth, benzene in groundwater and in surface flows sucks. It really does. But let's not pretend like this is happening in some pristine aquifer, Gold Medal trout water or even near the Cherry Creek confluence. It's not. This is an already disgusting section of water that no one in their right minds would swim or drink from.

Sixth, as gross as this all is, it shows the benefits of the Clean Water Act because the river is WAY less polluted today than it has been at pretty much any time since statehood.

According to a DP article on April 2, 2012, the CDPHE announced Suncor Energy will pay about $2.2 million in fines for air quality violations due to benzene pollutionSuncor refinery in Commerce City will pay fine for air quality violations http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ ... y-fine-air

domino wrote:Fined? How come no one has been arrested, indicted and tried? It has been a year and a half.

If this is how they will react to spills, how can anyone dream of allowing fracking?

Here's an idea. Turn the gas supply off to your home. Take you vehicles and send them to the recycler. Get rid of everything plastic in you home. Once you do that, then you can get away with your tripe.

Suncor is cleaning up a spill started under the site's previous ownership.

domino wrote:Fined? How come no one has been arrested, indicted and tried? It has been a year and a half.

If this is how they will react to spills, how can anyone dream of allowing fracking?

Here's an idea. Turn the gas supply off to your home. Take you vehicles and send them to the recycler. Get rid of everything plastic in you home. Once you do that, then you can get away with your tripe.

Suncor is cleaning up a spill started under the site's previous ownership.

Some guy in a truck crashed into my house. I can't complain because I have a truck also. Free-dumb.

domino wrote:Fined? How come no one has been arrested, indicted and tried? It has been a year and a half.

If this is how they will react to spills, how can anyone dream of allowing fracking?

Here's an idea. Turn the gas supply off to your home. Take you vehicles and send them to the recycler. Get rid of everything plastic in you home. Once you do that, then you can get away with your tripe.

Suncor is cleaning up a spill started under the site's previous ownership.

So what? Succeeding companies are responsible for all liabilities.

You freaking oil is killing the planet.

No one is denying it's Suncor's responsibility to clean up. Their policies and procedures were not the cause, however.

I would like to see you try to live without petroleum products. By the way, all your precious solar and wind energy sources require petroleum products.

powderhoundMJ wrote:Where are all the anti-regulations, anti-EPA folks? The cost of those bubblers and absorption floats must be busting Suncor's profit margins. Where are all the Tea Party members to stand up for this poor corporation's rights to operate freely in this free country?

Edit: wow, DP changed my prefered term to "Tea Party members" way to keep it clean

They do tend to go overboard with their "cleansing."

I once uses the initials for Blue Cross/Blue Shield in a comment and they changed it to BC/baloney.